Feeding and cutting mechanism.



H. MfiLLER. FEEDING AND CUTTING MECHANISM.

APPLICATION I'ILBD NOV. 25, 1911.

1,065,621 Patented June 24, 1913.

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HANS M'ULLER, 0F HAGEN, WESTPI-IALIA, GERMANY.

FEEDING- AND CUTTING MECHANISM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J line 24, 1913.

Application filed November 25, 1911. Serial No. 662,465.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, HANS Mi'JLLnu, en gineer,a citizen of the German Empire, residing at Hagen, in the Province ofWest- 5 phalia, Germany, have invented certain new and usefulImprovements in Feeding and Cutting Mechanism, of which the following isa specification.

My invention relates to improvements 1n feed mechanisms used in machinescutting articles of slender, straight rod-like shape, into parts ofuniform size and shape.

The object of my invention is to provide a mechanism of the kindreferred to, in which the production of waste is avoided, which has beencaused in the devices heretofore in use by the circumstance that therods, when received by the feeding device, were -not caught by thelatter in a proper relative osition with respect to the cutting device.The rods fed into the cuttin mechanism were not forwarded equally ar andthus the pieces separated by the first out were unequal. In my improvedmechanism, however, each rod is prior to its arrival in the cuttingdevice retained by a swinging detent, which is of such construction andso disposed that on its removal just so much of the feed is forwardedinto the cutter as corresponds with the length of the piece to be cutoff.

My mechanism may be employed in connection with continuous orintermittent roller feedin devices, an intermittent roller constructioneing by way of example shown on the drawing 1n which- Figure 1 is a sideview of the said feeding device provided with my improvements as hereindescribed, a portion of the device being shown in vertical section; Fig.2 is a portion of the same device, in side-view, in which, however, theoperative parts are shown in another position, hereinbelow referred to;Fig. 3 is a similar view showing 45 those parts in a third position,also hereinbelow referred to; Fig. 4 is a plan view of the feedingdevice and Fig. 5 a transverse section through the same.

The cutting mechanism-is not shown on 540 the drawing as, it forms nopart of this invention, there being, moreover, no restriction as to thekind of cutters employed, which may be a saw orshears or any othercutting device.

The feed mechanism shown consists mainly of two feed-roller pairs 1 and2 forwarding, the feed in the way already generally known by means offriction, and a guide formed of crosswise disposed bars 3 terminating ina mouth 4 opening into the cutting device. The said feed rollers shown,or in case of another feeding device the respective corresponding parts,are set to operation by means of a pair of toothed wheels 5 and a pinion6, while the rollers 2, or other respective parts corresponding thereto,are set to motion by means of another pair of toothed wheels 7 and acommon gear wheel 8 mounted loosely on a shaft 9 alternately rotated inthe one and the other direction.

With the ear wheel 8 there is connected a ratchet w eel 10, into whichengages a pawl 11 jointed to an arm 12 mounted on the shaft 9 in suchrelative position that b the alternate rotatory movement of the sha t 9the said ratchet wheel 10 and by the intermediate action of the toothedwheels 8, 7, 6, 5 the roller pairs 1 and 2 are intermittently rotated inthe feeding direction, the several gears being of such relativediameters that the rotation of the rollers 1 is slower than that of therollers 2. Between the toothed wheel 6 and the roller pair 1 there isprovided a detent mechanism consisting of a ratchet wheel 13 connectedwith the lower wheel 5 and of a pawl 14 secured to the wheel 6 andpermitting a movement of the rollers 1 in advance to the latter. Thusthe feed on arriving at the rollers 2 is permitted to join in thegreater speed of these rollers without being affected by the slowermoving rollers 1, so that the feed is for warded always at equal speed.

Behind the feed rollers 2 and through an opening in the guide 3 thelower end of a double lever 16 extends into the said guide far enoughthat the feed forwarded by means of the rollers 1, 2 is pushedthereagainst. The said lever 15 is fulcrumed in an arm 16 in the box 17rotatably mounted in a shaft 19 in a slide 18. The latter is movable bymeans of a screw 18 and a hand wheel 18 to permit the adjusting of thelever 15 in accordance with the intended lfength .of the piece to be cutoff from the On one end of the shaft 19 there is secured a lever 20which is by means of a rod 21 so connected with a lever 22 securely 110keyed on the shaft 9 that the shaft 19 is also alternately rotated, suchrotation being in the direction of the arrow as, Fig. 5, as long as themovement of the feed rollersl, 2 remains interrupted, and in theopposite direction as long as'it is going on. On the other end of theshaft 19 there is secured a clutch member .23 in which there isengageable another clutch member 23" whlch is, by means of a pivot 24secured thereto, connected with the upper arm of the lever 15 andremovable from the first mentioned member by the action of anintermediate spring 25 provided between the arm 16 and the said lever15.

When the feed pushes against the lever 15 the latter is, in thedirection in which the feed comes forward, swung up far enough to bringthe clutch member 23* in engagement with the stationary clutch member 2.As the drawing shows, the clutch members are of such relative shape thatonly on the movement of the shaft 19 in the direction of the arrow 00,Fig. 5, the clutch member 23 engages the member 23 to partake in suchmovement, the said member 23* being adapted to carry along with it thelever 15 connected thereto.

The rods intended for division should be inserted between the rollers lby which each rod is seized and intermittently forwarded until it getsbetween the rollers 2 and is further forwarded by the latter until itpushes against the lever 15, which is thereby made to swing and causethe movable clutch member 23 to engage the fixed clutch member 23whereupon a further forwarding is no more possible for the present (seeFig. 2). Whenever the intermittent forward movement of the feed rollersis not yet finished at the time. the feed pushes against the lever 15,the said rollers slide over the feed, duly kept fast until theintermittent movement has been finished. During the standstill of theroller pairs 1 and 2 now following the shaft 19 swings in the directionof the arrow :0, Fig. 5, thereby causing the coupling member 23 toengage and take along the member 23 which, in turn, causes the lever 15to swing about the shaft 19, the said lever departing from the guide andthus releasing the feed which is by the intermittent feed ing movementnext following pushed forward for a certain distance and fed into thecutter movement. its swinging movement has left the feed, it is by theaction of the spring 25 made to turn around its axis 15 in the directionopposite to that of the feed, the coupling being at the same timedisengaged, permitting the lever 15 to swing downward again by theaction of its own weight. It now settles alongside the feed (Fi 3) andremains there until the latter in lieing pushed farther forward haspassed by, whereupon When the lever 15 in' it is permitted again to layitself within the path of the feed and regulate the forward movement ofthe next following stick or rod (see Fig. 1).

The rods may be put into the feed mechanism in immediate succession. Therollers 1 rotating at a slower speed, than the rollers 2, a certaindistance is automatically kept between the several feeds permitting thereturn of the lever 15 into the path of the feed. It will be understoodthat the distance at which the first rod is being'forwarded correspondswith the amount of feeding movement of the rollers 2 so that the firstpiece cut off has the same length as any of the next following piecesand there is no waste of material produced by the devices 1n useheretofore.

It will be understood that the lever 15 does not limit nor control themotion of the feeding rolls or that of the cutting device, nor interferewith the action of the rolls in presenting the rod to the cutter afterit has been duly positioned with regard to these parts, but it insuresin advance the accuracy of such resentation and withdraws from the roduring the action of the rolls in feeding the rod to the cutter. To statethe matter more fully and clearly we may add: The feed intended to becut into pieces is intermittently pushed forward by means of feedingroller pairs 1 and 2 in a guide bed formed by bars 3, so that with eachpush the feed is forwarded so much that it projects from the opening ofa guide bed a distance which corresponds with the length of pieceintended to be cut off, a cutting blade being provided right in front ofthe said mouth. There is no obstructive device by which each movement ofthe feed is limited, but the forward movement is controlled by aregulated movement of the rollers 1 and 2. In devices of this kind whichare already known there is the drawback that whenever a new rod is beinginserted the same is not seized by the feeding members when theyv are ina certain predetermined position in respect to the cutting device, and,consequently, the fore-end of the rod is never fed into the cutter at auniform length and after the first out there is always "a waste piece,which is either too long or too short. The object of my invention is toavoid this disadvantage and I attain this object by means of a swingingdetent lever 15, which each time so retains the newly inserted rodbefore it arrives at the cutting device that the fore-end of the rod isso placed that there is the desired uniform distance from the cuttingdevice. When the rod has been inserted into the feeding device in thismanner the lever 15 automatically releases the rodand has no oflicewhatever any more while this rod is being cut into pieces.

Previous to inserting a feed rod into the device the aforesaid lever 15,which is turnable about its fulcrum 15" assumes a position which isshown in Fig. 1 of the drawings, its lower end being suspended into theguide bed for the rod formed by the bars 3. Now, when a feed is insertedinto the machine the rollers 2 get hold of it and effect theintermittent forward movement. During this operation the rod hits firstthe lever 15, so that the latter is made to turn about its fulcrum 15until it becomes engaged with its upper portion by a clutch formed bythe members 23 23 and is thus prevented from further turning- It retainsthe feed rod in a certain fixed position, so that it cannot be movedforward any farther, even in case the feeding rollers have not yetcompleted their respective turn, the rollers in this case gliding on thefeed rod. By'the aforesaid engagement of the clutch 23 23 the lever 15was put in connection with the shaft 19 which during the next followingstandstill period receives a turn in the direction of the arrow as (Fig.5). In this movement the lever 15 joins, so that it is thereby moved outof the guide formed by bars 3 and thus releases the feed rod. Directlythereafter the action of the spring 25 causes the lever 15 to move aboutits fulcrum l5" and thereby a disengagement of the clutch members 23 23and'a release of the said lever from the shaft 19 is obtained, the saidlever swinging now by gravity back into its former position and settlinglaterally, with the lower end against the feed rod. The forward movementbeing no longer obstructed by the lever 15, the feed rod isintermittently pushed forward and thus fed into the cutter, which cutsoff pieces of uniform length. When the rod has in this operation passedthe lever 15 the latter returns into its original starting position(Fig. 1) and is now in a position to act upon any new rod when the sameis inserted. As is explained in the foregoing, the lever operates merelywhen a new rod is inserted, but not while the pieces are being cut, butit secures to the feed a predetermined position controllable by theoperation of a hand-wheel 18 in its relation to the cutting device, andthus the advantage that the first piece cut off is of the desireduniform length.

I claim:

1. In the automatic feed mechanism of a cutting machine of the classreferred to'thc combination therewith of a detent mechanism and of meansadapted to' actuate the same in conjunction with the traveling ac tionof the feed the said detent mechanism being adapted to control thedistance of the able on the said shaft, an arm movement of the, feed,substantially as described andfor the urpose set forth. f 2. In theautomatic feed mechanism of a cutting machine of the class referred tothe tending into the path of the feed, a spring adapted to actuate thesaid lever, an alternately rotating shaft, a box loosely turnextendingfrom the said box, the said lever being supported in the said arm andadapted to swing in the direction of the feed, a movable and rotatablecoupling member connected with the said lever, another coupling memberwithin engagement of the first-mentioned member, and of two sets ofrollers adapted to be operated intermittently and at various speeds,substantiall as described and for the purpose mentione 4. Incombination, in automatic feed mechanism, a detent lever extending intothe path of the feed, an alternately rotating shaft, a collar carriedbylsaid shaft, the upper end of said lever being slidably pivoted tosaid collar, an arm loosely mounted on said shaft and providing afulcrum for said lever, a spring interposed between the upper part ofsaid lever and said arm acting to force said arm and the upper part ofsaid lever apart, an intermittently operated clutch connection betweensaid collar and said shaft, and a pair of feeding rolls.

5. In combination, in automatic feed mechanism, a detent lever extendinginto the path of the feed, an alternately rotating shaft, a collarcarried by said shaft, the upper end of said lever being connected tomove with said collar, an arm loosely mounted on said shaft andproviding a fulcrum for said lever, a spring interposed between said armand the upper part of said lever, anintermittently operated clutchconnection between said collar and said shaft and means for feeding thearticle to be operated upon.

In testimony whereof, I-have signed my name to this specification inthepresence of two subscribing witnesses.

HANS MULLER. a s.]

Witnesses: i

HELEN NUFER, ALBERT NUFER.

